ATLANTA -- An American Civil Liberties Union attorney went before a federal judge Wednesday and won the Ku Klux Klan the right to march next weekend in LaGrange, Ga.
The city had refused the klan a parade permit on grounds it is a violent organization and that members carry guns to its rallies.
But ACLU attorney Gary Bunch, representing the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said the city's resistance to granting the permit violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly.
LaGrange attorney Jim Lewis unsuccessfully argued the Klan was only trying to provoke a confrontation with Troop County blacks and others who are offended by the hooded order's avowed racism.
U.S. District Judge G. Ernest Tidwell told the attorneys there was no legal precedent for denying the Klan a temporary restraining order to keep police from blocking the parade route.
'I don't think I have any alternative but to issue the order sought by the plaintiff,' said Tidwell. 'As far as I know, there has been no occasion when a denial of the plaintiff's postion has been upheld.'
After a half hour of arguments, the judge asked attorneys for both sides to work out parking arrangements and assembly points for an orderly parade. Tidwell said he would ratify such an agreement.
The attorneys and city officials, in an hour-long, closed-door discussion, worked out an agreement for the Klan to march about a mile through LaGrange Saturday and hold a half-hour rally near City Hall. Police Chief Gary Shepherd said he would have all 80 officers on duty - 65 more than normal -- to escort the Klan through town.
Georgia Great Titan Cramer Rogers of Roopville and Exalted Cyclops James C. Hale of LaGrange attended the hearing with the ACLU attorney, but did not testify.
Lewis said he wanted to call LaGrange Detective Stanford Collier, who attended a klan rally in Bremen a few weeks ago and saw 'arms in abundance.' Tidwell declined to hear the detective, saying past Klan conduct did not affect its constitutional right to demonstrate next Saturday.
